Pubdate: Fri, 01 Sep 2000
Source: Summit Free Press (CO)
Copyright: 2000 Summit Free Press, Inc.
Contact:  PO Box 8386, Breckenridge, CO 80424
Feedback: http://www.summitfreepress.com/contact_us_page.htm
Website: http://www.summitfreepress.com/
Author: Doug Malkan

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ARREST OF BRECKENRIDGE MAN

'Dread' Fred Hopson Busted For Growing Pot, Claims It's A Medical Necessity

A well-known Breckenridge man has been arrested and charged with growing medical marijuana for a head injury and faces felony charges and the loss of his house and cars.

Fred Hopson, 30, a 10-year Breckenridge local known by some as "Dread Fred" because of the long dreadlocks he used to have, was arrested in his Alma home Aug. 4 at a predawn raid by Park County sheriffs, with assistance from the Summit County Drug Task Forse. Also arrested was Hopson's fiance Shannon Scott, 25.

According to Hopson and Scott, eight officers dressed in full camouflage gear, armored helmets and vests burst into their home screaming and pointing spotlights attached to the end of their shotguns at the couple while they lay in bed.

The police reportedly found what they say were 52 plants, plus 42 cut stems and roots, enough to automatically charge Hopson and Scott with distribution, which is a felony.

But the couple insist they were growing marijuana for Hopson's severe headaches, a result of a work related accident for which Hopson is under a Breckenridge doctor's care. Hopson said his doctor has told him he would prescribe marijuana in his case, if it were legal.

Hopson and Scott say their treatment by the police was "horrible." They say the eight male cops made Scott stand in front of them for several minutes naked with her arms raised and then tried to handcuff her in the nude. Scott says she had to demand she be given some clothes. Hopson was taken to jail without a shirt.

The two also say their dogs were injured during the raid, kicked and dragged into the bathroom and locked up, then taken to the animal shelter. "It was beyond wrong," Scott says of the treatment by the police.

The two admit they were growing plants, because they say they could not afford to buy marijuana on the black market, which would be another crime anyway; and, they say that all of their plants were immature and not flowering and thus contained no THC.

Hopson admits he smokes pot, but not to get high. He says marijuana is the only thing he has found in four years of medical treatment that works well for his headaches. Now, since the confiscation of his marijuana supply, he says his headaches have gotten worse.

"The marijuana actually brought me down and took care of my headaches. A lot of times it hurts, but it was okay ever since I started smoking marijuana," he said.

Hopson says he's tried aspirin, Tylenol, Advil and all the doctor- prescribed pain and muscle relaxers, but they do not work for him. Since his arrest he says he has been given Flexeril, a powerful muscle relaxer. But he has not liked that drug because he finds it hard to function and he says Flexeril often knocks him out.

"Why do they have to put me on pills? Pills are addictive as hell. Marijuana is not physically addictive and marijuana helps solve my problem," Hopson said. "I'm brain injured. I'm so much slower that I used to be, why do they have to do this to me? They're like Nazi-type people."

Newspaper articles chronicle the accident in which Hopson fell 26 feet off a ladder at a construction site on Nov. 12, 1996, and sustained 26 fractures to his scull. His head swelled in what doctors call a closed-head injury, which is life threatening. Hopson spent eight days in a coma. After the accident he could not remember many things, including names of his friends, how to operate a shower or how to walk. Hopson currently sees a doctor for painful headaches from muscle spasms in his head due to the accident, and still experiences memory problems and has permanently lost his sense of smell and taste.

The young couple are terrified of losing their home and cars because of the forfeiture laws applicable in prosecuting drug cases.

Hopson used his modest insurance settlement in 1996 to make the down payment on their 1,300-square-foot Mosquito Gulch home. In addition, Hopson's hobby is fixing old cars and the police have seized six vehicles including his work truck, their snowplowing truck, two VW's he is working on and the couple's two Subarus. He says he has $60,000 equity in the home and the cars.

"This is what they are interested in," Hopson says. "They want the money."

"What they are doing is wrong," adds Scott. "They are just trying to make a lot of money off some young kids. This is a serious abuse of power."

If he doesn't get his plow truck back before winter, Hopson says he will be unable to plow his road. Also, without their cars, Hopson and Scott are reduced to hitchhiking to get to work, sometimes having to commute between Alma and Breckenridge.

The couple says that the police have still not returned their driver's licenses and their ATM cards, three weeks after their arrest. They have no way to legally drive, even though they have no cars anymore, and they have to show last year's Buddy Pass to write a check.

Also, they say the police refuse to return photo albums and personal mementos of Hopson's benefit fundraising rally at the Alligator Lounge in 1996, which helped raise money for his medical bills. Three to four hundred people attended the benefit. They say they think the police are looking at the pictures of their friends and the benefit attendees from four years ago, which make up the bulk of the seized mementos. Also seized and not returned is a lock of Hopson's hair from his 1996 dreadlocks, which he credits for saving his life by cushioning the blow to his head.

Hopson says the police have also seized his chainsaw. The couple say they need the saw now to start preparing their wood supply for the winter. Both Hopson and Scott work two jobs; three in the winter. And ever since one year after the accident, Hopson says he is proud he has not received any financial assistance from the government. They both say they work hard to pay their mortgage and taxes, be productive members of society and will go out of their way to help friends.

"I'm the best darn citizen in town, but they are treating me like a criminal and all I'm trying to do is help myself ... the government's like a predator or something," Hopson said.

"It's so sad they have to pick on people like that," Scott added, referring to Hopson's condition. "They're bullies: the government, the police. Sick people are the easiest to pick on."

The Park County Sheriff's office refused to show the Free Press a copy of the 26-page arrest report, unless the newspaper paid $26. Unlike law enforcement agencies in Summit County, which have never charged our paper for just looking at a report, the police in Park County apparently do not consider their agency a very public one; a spokesperson for the Sheriff told us "the arrest reports are the property of the Sheriff's office, not public property."

After our request to view the report, the Sheriff's office later told us that a judge in the Park County district court had sealed the entire investigative report at the request of the investigating deputy. We were then told quite bluntly by the Sheriff's spokesperson that no information "what-so-ever" would be made available and no questions of any kind would be answered.

The two are being charged with cultivation and possession of a controlled substance over 8 ounces and could face forfeiture of their house and vehicles, according to their attorney, Dennis Blewitt.

A Boulder lawyer that has handled drug cases since the 1960's, Blewitt says he came out of retirement to take the case. "The two should not even be facing any charges," he said, but that due to "the mishandling" of the medical marijuana initiative in 1998, Hopson and Scott now could now lose everything.

In 1998, medical marijuana was on the Colorado ballot, but Secretary of State Vicky Buckley did not count the votes because she said there were not enough valid signatures on the petitions. After her death, boxes of petition sheets were found in her office and a recount of all the signatures initiated by proponents proved the State made a mistake. A judge then ordered the medical marijuana question be placed on the ballot again, Nov. 7.

"Here you have a guy who had an industrial accident. The state of Colorado is damn lucky they aren't supporting him right now. He has a prescription for opiates, but opiates make him so he can't work. So that he can work, so that the state doesn't have to support him, he's smoking dope. To me that's not just medical use, that's a medical necessity ... so what is the state going to do, they're going to take away his house. That's unjust," Blewitt said.

Hopson and Scott are planning to hold a benefit this month to help raise money for their legal defense.
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